Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Michael Charles Kolenik Finally Arrives!!!!

It is with a deep sigh of relief that we are finally publishing this post after the whirlwind of the past few days culminated with us bringing our wonderful new son Michael Charles Kolenik home from NICU.

About two weeks before his birthday, Michael was measuring 9 lbs, and Shannon's fluid level was considered "high normal". Excessive amounts of walking and spicy Mexican food did not kick labor into gear, so on tax day (Thursday, April 15th) at 9am we went to the hospital to be induced. We waited...and waited...and waited for the medicine to kick in and finally, during the second episode of Card Sharks we had watched (check your local listings for hospital tv at 3:30am, that was by far the best thing on) it was time to push. We hope you bet the over as Michael weighed in at 9 lbs. 11 oz. and looked great at 4:29am on April 16th.

Michael's first day was filled with meeting new friends such as Kevin, Kelly, Rosette and family members like Nana, Poppy, Big Poppa, Nanny Pat, Aunt Eileen and of course his big sister Mary Pat. It was a wonderful and joy filled day. Unfortunately, at 3:30am on the 17th Shannon got the wakeup no new mother wants to get (and I got the phone call no new father wants to get), with the news that our son was being transferred to NICU.

It turns out that he had spit up some green substance so there was concern that he may have some internal issues. An x-ray was ordered as well as an upper gastro-intestinal exam to make sure that his insides had formed properly. He was also put on antibiotics to knock out any infection that may have taken hold, and was put onto an IV as well.

Mercifully, all of the tests came back negative and after some further observation our boy was given a clean bill of health. This condition is apparently rather common in large babies whose mothers have elevateved fluid levels.

We were able to take MCK home on Tuesday for many hugs and kisses from his big sister who is completely smitten with her little brother. Thanks to everyone for their prayers during this time, and a special, special thanks to the NICU staff at Winthrop Hospital for doing such an outstanding job.

Please enjoy the pictures below and follow the link for more photos of our little big man. We can't wait for you to meet him!

4 comments:

Hooray, finally we get to see the "little big man". He is just adorable and I know he will get loved on much by his "big little" sister Mary Pat. Congratulations to you all and can't wait to meet him!On a very random note Shannon, your eyebrows look really good. :0)